General Motors is working to expand upon its vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems that are being developed to allow information to be shared between vehicles and infrastructure to provide advance warning of potential road hazards, such as stalled vehicles, slippery roads, road works, intersections, stop signs and the like. The automaker is now looking to add pedestrians and cyclists to the mix so a car can detect them in low visibility conditions before the driver does.
Instead of relying on Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) technology like the V2I and V2V systems, the pedestrian-detecting system under development uses Wi-Fi Direct, a peer-to-peer standard that allows Wi-Fi devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to connect directly to each other without the need for a wireless hotspot.
GM says that integrating Wi-Fi Direct with other sensor-based object detection and driver alert systems already available in many production vehicles will enable pedestrians and cyclists carrying Wi-Fi Direct-enabled smartphones to be detected. And whereas conventional systems will have a lag of around seven to eight seconds because a signal needs to be sent to and from a mobile phone tower, Wi-Fi Direct offers location data that is current up to one second as it eliminates this intermediate step.
More details at Gizmag.
Andrew
